1.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century

2.
Plymouth
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Plymouths early history extends to the Bronze Age, when a first settlement emerged at Mount Batten. This settlement continued as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until it was surpassed by the prosperous village of Sutton founded in the ninth century. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers departed Plymouth for the New World, during the English Civil War the town was held by the Parliamentarians and was besieged between 1642 and 1646. The combined town took the name of Plymouth which, in 1928, the citys naval importance later led to its targeting and partial destruction during World War II, an act known as the Plymouth Blitz. After the war the city centre was rebuilt and subsequent expansion led to the incorporation of Plympton. The city is home to 262,700 people, making it the 30th most populous area in the United Kingdom. It is governed locally by Plymouth City Council and is represented nationally by three MPs, Plymouths economy remains strongly influenced by shipbuilding and seafaring including ferry links to Brittany and Spain, but has tended toward a service-based economy since the 1990s. It has the largest operational base in Western Europe – HMNB Devonport and is home to Plymouth University. An unidentified settlement named TAMARI OSTIA is listed in Ptolemys Geographia and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city, at the time this village was called Sutton, meaning south town in Old English. The name Plym Mouth, meaning mouth of the River Plym was first mentioned in a Pipe Roll of 1211, the name Plymouth first officially replaced Sutton in a charter of King Henry VI in 1440. See Plympton for the derivation of the name Plym, during the Hundred Years War a French attack burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town. In 1403 the town was burned by Breton raiders, on 12 November,1439, the English Parliament made Plymouth the first town incorporated. The castle served to protect Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of Plymouth Dockyard. In 1512 an Act of Parliament was passed for further fortifying Plymouth, defences on St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery blockhouses were built, including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe. This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort in 1596, during the 16th century locally produced wool was the major export commodity. According to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the Hoe before engaging the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World from Plymouth, during the English Civil War Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians and was besieged for almost four years by the Royalists. The last major attack by the Royalist was by Sir Richard Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, the civil war ended as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by King Charles II in 1660, who imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on Drakes Island

3.
Torbay
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Torbay /tɔːrˈbeɪ/ is a borough in Devon, England, administered by the unitary authority of Torbay Council. It consists of 62.87 square kilometres of land, spanning the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, Torbay is roughly equidistant from the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. That the Torbay area has been inhabited since Paleolithic times is shown by human bones, a maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be the oldest example of a modern human in Europe, dating back to 37, 000–40,000 years ago. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay during the period when Britain was a part of the Roman Empire, leaving offerings at a rock formation in Kents Cavern. Both Brixham and Paignton appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 and Paignton was given the status of a borough having a market, the first major building in Torquay was Torre Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1196. William Prince of Orange landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, the historic part of Paignton is inland, the low-lying coastal fringe was originally salt marsh. Paignton remained a fishing village until the early 19th century. The second phase in the expansion of the area began when Torre railway station was opened in December 1848. The railway was extended to Torquay Seafront station in 1858, Paignton in 1859, as a result of its expansion, Torquay was granted borough status in 1872, and 1902 saw its first marketing campaign to summer tourists. Torbay Golf & Country Club opened in 1933, the club and course closed in the mid 1950s. Tor Bay hosted the events for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. The County Borough became the Borough of Torbay under local government reorganisation in 1974 and it was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 making it responsible for its own affairs. The area is represented nationally at the House of Commons by two MPs, Brixham and part of Paignton fall within the Totnes constituency, with Conservative Sarah Wollaston elected. Torbay is in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament, together with the rest of South West England, until May 2011, Torbay Council had been headed by the first directly elected mayor in the South West region. Conservative candidate Nicholas Bye who won in October 2005, under a system which was later described as a total failure with Bye receiving votes from fewer than 7% of the electorate. However, running as an independent he was defeated in the May 2011 election by Gordon Oliver who stood as a Conservative, for local elections the district is divided into 15 wards. The Council elects 36 councillors in elections every four years. Since the Torbay Council election,2015, the council has a Conservative majority, the composition as of 9 May 2015, There are three main towns around the marine inlet of Tor Bay, Torquay in the north, Paignton in the centre, and Brixham in the south

4.
Unitary authority
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Typically unitary authorities cover towns or cities which are large enough to function independently of county or other regional administration. Sometimes they consist of national sub-divisions which are distinguished from others in the country by having no lower level of administration. In Canada, each province creates its own system of local government, in certain provinces there is only one level of local government in that province, so no special term is used to describe the situation. British Columbia has only one municipality, Northern Rockies Regional Municipality. In Ontario the term single-tier municipalities is used, for a similar concept and their character varies, and while most function as cities with no upper level of government, some function as counties or regional municipalities with no lower municipal subdivisions below them. They exist as individual divisions, as well as separated municipalities. In Germany, kreisfreie Stadt is the equivalent term for a city with the competences of both the Gemeinde and the Kreis administrative level, the directly elected chief executive officer of a kreisfreie Stadt is called Oberbürgermeister. The British counties have no directly corresponding counterpart in Germany and this German system corresponds to statutory cities in Austria and in the Czech Republic. Until 1 January 2007, the municipalities of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, in New Zealand, a unitary authority is a territorial authority that also performs the functions of a regional council. There are five unitary authorities, they are, Gisborne District Council, Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council, Marlborough District Council, and Auckland Council. The Chatham Islands, located east of the South Island, have a council with its own special legislation, constituted with powers similar to those of a regional authority. In Poland, a miasto na prawach powiatu, or shortly powiat grodzki is a, typically big, city which is responsible for district administrative level. In total,65 cities in Poland have this status, a single-tier system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973. Northern Ireland is divided into 11 districts for local government purposes and their functions include waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. They are not planning authorities, but are consulted on some planning applications, the collection of rates is handled by the Land and Property Services agency. Category, Subdivisions of Northern Ireland Local authorities in Scotland are unitary in nature, Act 1994 created a single tier of local government throughout Scotland. On 1 April 1996,32 local government areas, each with a council, replaced the previous two-tier structure, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar uses the alternative Gaelic designation Comhairle. The phrase unitary authority is not used in Scottish legislation, although the term is encountered in publications, Local authorities in Wales are unitary in nature but are described by the Local Government Act 1994 as principal councils, and their areas as principal areas

5.
Plymouth City Council
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Plymouth City Council is the unitary authority for Plymouth, Devon. It has traditionally been controlled by Labour or the Conservatives, with Liberal Democrats rarely winning seats upon the council, the leader of the council is Ian Bowyer since May 2016, of the Conservative Party, and the opposition group leader is Tudor Evans of the Labour Party. Plymouth was recorded as a borough from 1276 and was incorporated in 1439, in April 1889, as a result of the reform of local government by the Local Government Act 1888, Plymouth became a self-administering county borough. In 1914, the Borough of Plymouth was united with the boroughs of Devonport and Stonehouse and in 1928. This led to Plymouth lobbying for the creation of a new county of Tamarside, to include Plymouth, Torpoint, Saltash and this campaign was unsuccessful, and on 1 April 1974, Plymouth surrendered control of several areas to Devon County Council. This continued until 1 April 1998, when, under the recommendations of the Banham Commission, Plymouth was designated to become a unitary authority, and Plymouth City Council was established. The coat of arms of the City of Plymouth show the four towers of the old Plymouth Castle, with the saltire of Saint Andrew, the crest is a blue naval crown with a red anchor held in a lions paw. The crown and anchor were part of the crest of the former County Borough of Devonport, the Latin motto, Turris Fortissima est Nomen Jehova, means The strongest tower is the name of the Lord. Plymouth City Council appoints four members to the Devon and Somerset Combined Fire Authority, elections to Plymouth City Council happen once every year in May, with one exception year every four years, with the result that councillors serve terms of four years. This is because the council is split into thirds, with one third elected each year except the exception year, the council is traditionally dominated by the Labour and Conservative parties, with independents and the Liberal Democrats rarely winning seats. The UK Independence Party gained three seats at the elections in 2015. At present, Labour has 27 councillors, the Conservatives have 27, Plymouth has had a mayor in some form since 1439, and this tradition continued until 1934, when the king granted Plymouth the honour of having a Lord Mayor. The role of the Lord Mayor is largely ceremonial, and has evolved into a position which is the public. The Lord Mayor chairs council meetings in the Council Chamber, the position usually rotates between the Conservatives and Labour, and is chosen on the third Friday of May. He then chooses the Deputy Lord Mayor, the Lord Mayors official residence is 3 Elliot Terrace, located on the Hoe. The Civic Centre municipal office building in Armada Way became a building in June 2007 because of its quality. The Council has sold the building to a private developersand staff have moved into new accommodation elsewhere in the city and it has retained the adjacent Council House, where it continues to hold its meetings. If an area has two councillors, elections are held in two years out of four

6.
Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire

7.
Administrative county
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An administrative county was an administrative division in England and Wales and Ireland from 1888 to 1974, used for the purposes of local government. They are now abolished, although in Northern Ireland their former areas are used as the basis for lieutenancy, in England and Wales the legislation was repealed in 1974, and entities called metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties in England and counties in Wales were introduced in their place. Though strictly inaccurate, these are called administrative counties to distinguish them from both the historic counties, and the ceremonial counties. In Scotland they were never established as separate entities as they were in England, for local government purposes Scottish counties were replaced in 1975 with a system of regions and island council areas. The Local Government Act 1898 created administrative counties in Ireland on the model that had been used in England. In Northern Ireland the administrative counties were replaced by a system of 26 districts on 1 October 1973, section 131 of the Local Government Act 1972 stated that every county and every county borough shall cease to be an administrative area for local government purposes. In the Republic of Ireland the legislation that created them remained in force until the Local Government Act 2001 was passed, the administrative counties that did not share the names of previous counties, England Scotland Ross-shire and Cromartyshire Republic of Ireland Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom The Boundary Committee for England The Boundary Committee for Scotland The Boundary Committee for Wales

8.
Flag of Devon
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The Flag of Devon is the flag of the English county of Devon. It is dedicated to Saint Petroc, a saint with numerous dedications throughout the West Country. It is notable for its creation through two web-based polls, the subject of a Devonian flag was raised by the countys contingent of scouts to the 20th World Scout Jamboree in an interview on BBC Radio Devon in 2002. The scouts were unaware of a Devon flag and wondered if any of the listeners knew of a flag for the county, BBC Radio Devon took up the search for a flag for Devon and asked the public to send in designs. The flag was created in 2003 after a vote in two run by the BBC Devon website, the winning design taking 49% of the votes cast. The design was created by student Ryan Sealey, the Devon Flag is made of three colours — green, black and white. Although the flag is relatively young, its colours are traditionally identified with Devon. Lord Exmouth flew a dark green flag with white circles at the Bombardment of Algiers, since its launch in 2003, the Devon Flag has gained popularity, and in October 2006 it gained official recognition when Devon County Council raised the flag outside County Hall. In April 2004, Rodney Lock of Ottery St Mary in East Devon was threatened with legal action for flying the Devon flag in his back garden, as he required planning permission to fly non-national flags. Since then the Minister for Housing, Keith Hill, has said local authorities can turn a blind eye to the practice of flying the county flag from poles. The Devon Flag Group have suggested the dates as days when it is appropriate for the Devon flag to be flown. Most of them are either the days of events or the feast days of Devons saints. It is also flown outside of these days, especially in rural towns, dr Mark Stoyle, a Devon historian, noted that People are quite aware in Devon that the Cornish make political capital by claiming to be different. He also suggested that the sense of Devonian identity was a backlash against incoming city-dwellers settling in the South West